evangelism

I’m now a few weeks into my new role, leading MSC development at Kairos. It has obviously not been the start to the new role I’d expected. Nevertheless, it is great to be working with a team of other leaders who are committed to living out the Kairos vision and values. I have been struck several times by the encouragement we have received from others to press on with the vision of making disciples who make disciples in a community of communities. It has been good to see how we have done this in both our gathered and scattered modes of meeting over the last few weeks.

One of the ways in which we live out being disciples who make disciples is looking out for our people of peace; those who welcome us, appear willing to share life with us and are open to the Kingdom. These are the people that Jesus encouraged His disciples to spend time with. When Jesus sends his disciples out to the surrounding towns, part of his instructions are, “When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you. Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.”( Luke 10:5-7). In the same way Jesus is willing to let people go who are not ready to hear what he has to say or to follow him. This is clear in the way in which Jesus allows the rich young ruler to walk away. (Mark 10:17-27).

We all have connections with different people, sometimes we find it difficult to know which of these are our people of peace and to move on from natural to spiritual conversations. However, doing this will often help us to discover if someone is in fact a person of peace. A couple of Sundays back we saw our Christmas publicity for the first time – the cards look fabulous if you haven’t seen one yet, there are plenty at the resource base so do grab some. They are a way to invite people into our Christmas activities, but I think they can also be used to help us to move our conversations on from the natural to spiritual level. I know this is how we plan to use them within the context of LINKS and I would encourage you to do the same in your context. I’m praying for some significant conversations over the next few weeks that enable us to identify our people of peace and encourage them to make steps into a discipleship journey.

You’ve probably heard us talk about “People of Peace.” People who like you, want to hang out with you and are open to and interested in learning how to follow Jesus from you. Jesus talks about them in Luke 10.

Hopefully you have a person of peace – someone you can identify who is responding to you in that way.

How do you help them grow in their discipleship? There are some simple principles – pray for them, look for ways to bless them, invite them to the things that your MSC is doing, and make the most of opportunities to share stories of what God is doing in your life. Sometimes you do need a bit more of a plan though. Here is a great little story from Clive and Ruth about what they did:

“A friend of ours had said she wanted to find out more about the Christian faith. We thought that Alphawould be great since it provides solid teaching combined with plenty of space for questions and discussion.

Kairos wasn’t scheduled to run an Alpha course in the near future, so we decided to run it at home. In practice, you can download all the talks and guides from the Alpha website.

Running it at home made it easier to fit in with family schedules and meant we could easily rearrange so our friend didn’t miss out. Holding it in our home gave it a more informal atmosphere and we able to build a deeper understanding with our friend than would have been the case in a larger group. Conversely, it did mean that the dynamic of being part of a group was missing. Also the sessions on the Holy Spirit were run over a few weeks and so didn’t have the same intensity as an away day.

Overall, it was a really good time and it was so encouraging to see our friend’s faith grow and her understanding develop of who God is and what it means to be a disciple of Christ. The recent start of Discovery Bible Studies with our friend has been a natural progression.”

You don’t have to do Alpha (although it is brilliant and increasingly easy to use with their new films). Some people in Ohana tried inviting some friends along to a Parenting Course that has just finished; this built stronger relationships and has left people wanting to join in with the main activity of the MSC. I know some communities made plans on Saturday to try out the Storyformed Way.

Remember: the harvest is plentiful! This isn’t about finding the right thing its about doing something and trusting that God will bless it and use it – he’s even more keen than you are that your friends get to know him!

Want to hear some more about the person God is calling you to reach? Watch this great video from Caesar Kalinowski.

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